So, this is a story I did for the upcoming Werewolves Versus The Circus zine that sadly didn't make the cut, but I'm still really proud with how it turned out. I've decided to release it on my Patreon and then I'll make it public in a week like my other stories. While I'm at it, I'm going to go ahead and plug the Werewolves Versus Kickstarter again. Seriously, if you haven't already please share or contribute to it. We really want to make this a thing!
Anyway Memoirs of the Amazing Wolfman is about a boy named Victor who goes through a surprising change one evening that leaves him ostracized from the rest of society. With nowhere else to go he's taken in by a kind circus trope that help him realize his true talents and treat him like family. But can the circus life last forever?
Here's a little sample of it.
Memoir of the Amazing Wolfman
By: Ash Cinder
Victor Lupin, that’s what I’m known as today, but it wasn’t always like that. I didn’t used to be the famed werewolf actor I am today. Not everyone knows but I started out in a place you don’t hear a lot about in Hollywood, the circus, they called me “The Amazing Wolfman”.
It was 1948, I was 16 then, a seemingly normal kid going to high school. But I started to feel like something was different for a few weeks after my birthday. I couldn’t explain it at the time, but looking back, it was as if something was changing within me. But it wasn’t until the night of the full moon that I knew exactly what it was.
I made it home from a school dance one night, somehow not passing out from the pain that was growing inside me. My parents gathered around me, worried I’d come down with some kind of flu, as I was sweating profusely.
I looked down at my arms and gasped as I saw myself growing more hair, even under my bandages. I got up before stumbling over my own two feet. I looked down to see that my legs were changing as well, they were morphing into ones that were like a dog’s hind legs.
Panic started to set in as my parents looked on in horror. Then the pain grew worse, my skeleton felt like it was on fire as my bones began to reshape. My face felt like it had a rope tied around it somehow and was being pulled forward by a truck. I felt a pain in my lower spine as I could feel another appendage start to grow from my tailbone.
I continued to cry out for help as my body continued to shapeshift into that of a wolf. I couldn’t hear the my mom scream as she looked upon my new form, I couldn’t focus on anything except the pain and soreness in my body as the transformation began to enter its final stage.
I felt my ears grow longer and my teeth sharper. My body was now completely covered in grey fur and I no longer appeared human. I vomited on the living room floor once the transformation had finally completed.
I looked up to see my parents’ terrified faces looking aghast at what I’d become.
“Help me…” I muttered to them, reaching out a paw, only to see them all back away from me.
And it all went downhill from there. I couldn’t go to school anymore after that, everyone was afraid of me. I could barely go outside at all because people would either run away or attack me. I thought at least my own parents would stand by me. That was until I woke up one fateful morning to find a lot of their belongings packed and the car gone. I never saw them again. I was able to stay in the house for a little while before I was kicked out by people who came to repossess it.
I was homeless after that. No one wanted me, tried to get jobs everywhere but it was always the same, they’d either scream and slam the door, or if I was lucky, politely tell me that I “wasn’t what they were looking for”. It went on like that for a while, that was until I met Mr. Lewanski.
Lewanski’s Circus was a traveling show that came to my small hometown every year. I’d visited it as a boy once before, had fond memories of all the performers and stunts that it showcased. I suppose it was fate that I ended up coming back to it again. I lurked around the woods outside of town, the circus set up just at the edge of the woods.
Once the show was over I decided to try looking through the trash to see if there were any food that could satisfy me until morning, a half-eaten hotdog, or bag of popcorn. I didn’t even hear Mr. Lewanski approach me while I raided the garbage outside the tent. I heard him clear his throat and my head darted in his direction.
When our eyes met, I thought he would react just like everyone else did, I expected him to start screaming and smack me with his cane, ordering me to leave the area, but that’s not what happened. Instead he asked me my name…
“V…Victor…” I answered, almost forgetting it as I hadn’t heard it in so long.
“Well Victor,” he said with a sincere smile, “do you have a job?”
I gave him a confused look, thinking that was a very silly question.
“Uh, no…”
“Did you see the show tonight?” He asked, taking a small step toward me.
“No… I was just looking for food… I don’t have a place to stay,” I admitted.
“Interesting,” He said, stroking his black beard a bit.
“What’s interesting?” I asked.
“I was just thinking, if you wanted, seeing as you don’t have anywhere to stay, you could join my little family here at Lewanski’s Circus of Oddities.”
I continued to look at him like he was pulling my leg. He wanted me in his show?
“I know it might not sound glamorous, but we’re a group of comrades that travel together. A lot of my performers have been rejected by society, but in my circus, society comes to see them.”
Considering I’d been living like a literal feral animal for so long at that point, I would have been lying if I’d said that the offer didn’t sound tempting. I was a little nervous about what I might have to do to perform for the audience in the show, but the thought of having a place to stay and something to eat every day was very enticing.
I stood up and walked closer to him.
“I’m listening…” I said.
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